The Crafter's Dilemma: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 3)

by Jonathan Brooks

  Gerold used that rationale to start jogging again, and as he stepped into the dry, broken land he could feel himself getting closer and closer to the source of what he was sensing. He didn’t see a single beast or monster anywhere, though, despite hearing that the wastelands were dangerous and infested with groups of creatures that could kill a dwarf in minutes, if not seconds.

  Finally, following the draw of the concentrated Nether element ahead, Gerold carefully climbed up a small craggy hill and reached its apex; as soon as he did, however, he ducked back down and hid himself behind an outcropping when he caught a glimpse of what he was sure was the source he had heading towards that entire time.

  Below him in a broken valley of dust, desiccated wood branches, and broken stone, was a veritable army of undead – and they scared the armor off of Gerold. There were skeletons and zombies of all shapes and sizes, but there were also some undead covered head-to-toe in black armor, robed figures that seemed to pulse with Nether energy for some reason, and even some misty-like undead monsters floating in the air. That was bad enough – especially with their sheer numbers, which had to top 8 or 900 by that point in two equal groups – but what really frightened him was a huge…thing…in the middle of the two groups.

  Gerold couldn’t even look at it long, because it was disturbing to look at. The best way he could describe it was if you took the bloodless corpses of hundreds of various people and beasts and shoved them together into a massive blob, which apparently moved by either rolling or oozing over the ground. It was just a guess, though, because it was frozen in place, just like the other undead he saw; they seemed to all be facing the same way, either towards a small uniformly dug cave about 500 feet from him or a second larger, naturally created cave which was just below and across from his location.

  Ok…I think I’ve seen enough…I should be going now—

  Before he could inch himself back down the mountain and hopefully not call attention to himself, Gerold glanced up and saw a trio of the mist-like undead above him descending in his direction. Looking back down at the other monsters, he saw that those nearest to him were now looking in his direction, though fortunately none of them were moving – only those undead above his head.

  Judging by the speed they were moving, there was no way he could outrun them – even if he could run quickly in all of his armor; the most he could maintain was a slower jog, but that wouldn’t do much to get him away. Therefore, knowing he had no other choice, he unstrapped his battle-axe from his side and readied it and his shield to defend, using his Water element to coat the edge of the axe and the face of the shield with ice. He was pretty sure that his Nether element was going to be useless against monsters made exclusively with it, so Water was going to have to do.

  As the first one reached him, Gerold swung his axe upwards and cut all the way through the mist-like form of the monster; he was expecting some sort of resistance, so he ended up unbalancing himself and falling backwards. It was a good thing that he did, because as he fell on his rear end, he looked up to see that the undead mist was still coming for him even after it paused, reformed, and was plainly reduced in size from his attack. He was used to having to completely dismember Golems to kill them so it wasn’t that much of a surprise, but it would make it much harder to kill them if it kept on like that.

  He got his axe and shield back up just in time to defend himself…but the mists all stopped before they reached him. Before he could wonder why, he saw them float off downward towards the other undead – which he just realized a lot of noise was coming from. He could hear the impact of what sounded like something hard smacking against flesh, the crack of bones, and the screech of metal as it was ripped apart. Finally looking down there, he was shocked to see what looked like some sort of warzone between two different races that he’d only heard stories of when he was a child.

  Except, instead of the Dwarves fighting against Elves, Orcs, or Gnomes – or even the fabled Humans – it was a war between strange metal-like creatures and the undead. Actually, that’s not quite true, he thought, after seeing what he assumed were Elves streaming out of the natural cave near him, though he had never seen one in the flesh. There was plenty of flesh to see now, however, as he saw nearly twenty of them rushing out without a stitch of clothing or armor of any kind; not only that, but either he was being extremely racist, or they all looked exactly the same. It was said that it was hard to tell them apart because they all tended to look alike, but he thought that this situation was taking that stereotype a little far.

  Accompanying them were large silvery metal monkeys wielding what appeared to be warhammers, strange thick metal poles with three sets of arms that floated just barely above the ground, and even – he had to rub his eyes to check if they were working properly – a horde of Goblins rushing out and getting in the undead monsters’ way. That was about all they were doing, because they died very quickly and didn’t appear to have much in the way of offensive capabilities, but they certainly were a distraction.

  The robed figures caught his attention again as they started to move their arms; Gerold could feel the Nether energy building in them as the area around their hand started to darken. Before whatever they were trying to do could be accomplished, however, dozens of bright flashes shot out from the Elves, striking the undead figures and interrupting them. More and more spears of light hit them, and he saw one and then another get pierced as it penetrated its shield of darkness; within seconds they were down, leaving behind their Loot as they dissipated.

  But there were at least a dozen more that he could see – on this side of the broken valley, at least – and they continued to try to build their Nether energy up in what he assumed was some sort of attack. Suddenly, Gerold heard a whistling coming from above and behind him, and he readied himself for another attack by the misty undead; when he looked back, however, all he saw were some strange metallic shapes hurtling towards him out of the sky. He squatted down and braced himself behind his shield for the impact, but when nothing hit him he looked up to see that they were actually aiming over his head – and striking the dark-robed figures down in the battle.

  They didn’t seem to do much good at first, but as the Elves continued their light-slinging attacks he could see some of them penetrate the dark shield surrounding the undead, taking them out one-by-one. That ultimately didn’t seem to matter, though, as the rest of the skeletons, zombies, and armored undead started to swarm over the initial assault by the metal creatures and goblins. He even saw one of the Elves get picked up and ripped in half by a massive skeleton wielding a huge bone club, but after the initial blood and insides that spilled out, Gerold could’ve sworn that the entire body melted into a weird multi-colored ooze before dissipating – and leaving behind some Loot that he couldn’t identify from where he was.

  “What in the world is going on?” he whispered to himself as he watched the insane battle playing out. He originally thought the metal creature/Elven/Goblin team would come out ahead, but then he saw the group of undead near the other cave rush over to reinforce the ones closest to him. In addition, the gigantic, disturbing, horrific mass of melded-together bodies was rolling over – at least I know it rolls to move – towards the fighting.

  When it got closer, a strange black glow surrounded the smaller undead fighting; it didn’t seem to do anything at first, but when he saw one of the metal monkeys smash a skeleton apart that had the glow, the undead broke into pieces – which then quickly started to put itself back together. Gerold thought it was similar to how the Golems he was used to killing “healed” themselves, though this was at a much faster rate.

  With the ability to regenerate, the battle took an even greater toll on the odd team of combatants; the Dwarf thought it was all over and he looked back down the hill he was on to look for the best way down – he wanted to flee before the undead remembered he was there. However, another strange noise coming from the large cave stopped him.

  Emerging from the cave was a 20-foot-t
all wood-and-metal machine of some sort; on the front of the strange contraption was a small metal grate, which – unless his eyes were still playing tricks on him – held another, paler Goblin…and it seemed to be controlling the machine. One of the arms on the contraption was fused to a mighty-looking warhammer, while in the other was a massive double-bladed axe; looking closer, Gerold’s Dwarven senses kicked in and he immediately determined that they – and the rest of the metal on the machine – were made entirely of titanium, which was astonishing in and of itself.

  The weapons were crossed in front of the large contraption, however, and it appeared to be carrying some sort of metal ball. Gerold watched as the machine took two giant steps out of the cave, just barely out of range of the rampaging undead that were barely being held back by the metal creatures, Elves, and other Goblins. Before it could be overwhelmed, the two arms on the contraption quickly lifted up into the air, tossing the metal ball nearly 15 feet; the Goblin-controlled machine stepped its right leg back, turning the entire thing so that it was looking to the side.

  With the piercing sound of metal striking metal that reverberated throughout the broken wasteland valley, the massive contraption swatted the large ball out of the air with the flat of its double-bladed axe, sending it over the heads of the undead closing in. Gerold watched the ball fly through the air – with one side slightly dented from the impact with the axe – and land just feet from the front of the gigantic corpse blob. The group of undead from the other cave were just passing by it when the disgusting abomination rolled a little more forward; the gigantic undead just barely touched the metal sphere…when the world seemed to explode.

  On second thought, implode would probably be the better word. After an initial flash of light that almost blinded him, a weird vortex of glowing energy had taken the place of the metal ball. Gerold could see blue and black prevalent inside of the glowing vortex and he could sense the Nether energy in it – more than he had ever felt before, even compared to all of the undead in the valley. It felt more raw than what he sensed from the undead, so he thought that also might have something to do with how powerful it seemed.

  For almost five seconds, everything seemed to freeze, though Gerold could see out of the corner of his eye that the Goblin and its machine had retreated back into the cave and was now nowhere to be seen. After those five seconds, however, the vortex started to pull at everything around it; the corpse-blob next to it was the first to get sucked in, shrinking at the same time as it was absorbed faster and faster. In less time than the Dwarf thought possible, it was completely gone, having been sucked completely inside the raging vortex of energy.

  It wasn’t done yet, however; undead up to 30 feet away were picked up off their feet or pulled out of the air and were immediately sucked into the vortex and disappeared. Then those farther out at 40, 50, and then 100 feet were pulled in and destroyed one after the other. It wasn’t just the undead monsters that were sucked into the maelstrom of energy, but rocks, loose dirt, and desiccated sticks were also pulled in; when the range of the vortex reached 150 feet away – which in reality took less than 10 seconds from when it first started – Gerold watched and felt unsteady as the ground started to tremble.

  Below the vortex, the ground in which it was sitting broke apart and was sucked in as well, leaving a bowl-shaped crater in the stone and dirt. That only seemed to increase the speed of its expansion, as it started grabbing at all of the rest of the undead now starting to flee. Not only that, but it also indiscriminately picked up and destroyed the remaining metal creatures, Elves, and Goblins still out keeping the undead horde back. Soon enough there wasn’t a single dungeon monster left out in the broken valley as they were all pulled in and destroyed.

  But the expansion didn’t stop.

  “Oh, no…” Too late, Gerold realized he should’ve moved from his perch on top of the nearby hill earlier. He could feel himself being picked up, so he held onto an outcropping near the apex of the craggy hill to prevent himself from being sucked into the vortex. His battle-axe was ripped off his belt and he looked back to see it fly straight toward the energy maelstrom, disappearing in seconds; as his hands started to slip, he could feel his armor strengthening him as it enhanced the strength in his fingered gauntlets. Even that wasn’t enough, however, because he was still slipping – and his elemental energy was being drained quickly.

  He knew it was over when he felt the last of it give out and it felt like he got punched in the head; if the backlash of using too much energy in such a short time wasn’t bad enough, his armor – that took weeks of work for the Master Blacksmiths back home to design and create – disintegrated around his body, including his fingers. Gerold immediately lost his grip on the outcropping and felt himself being quickly sucked towards the vortex. Closing his eyes, he tried to shut out everything in an attempt to block out what he expected to be a tremendous amount of pain.

  He was spared that particular pain, however, as he felt the powerful pulling abruptly cease; the next thing he knew, he was falling towards the scooped-out ground underneath the vortex. Gerold opened his eyes just as his head collided with something hard below him…and then there was just darkness.

  Chapter 20

  “Is he dead?” Felbar asked, climbing out of the War Machine.

  That seemed to be a question that came up a lot in Sandra’s workshop – or at least what remained of it.

  * No, but he’s definitely unconscious and I believe bleeding internally. He doesn’t have long before it’s too late; I’m going to have to form the Visitor’s bond on him to heal him with my Repair Drones. I have a feeling it’ll put him in a coma like you and Echo were, but at least he’ll— *

  She was going to say, “be alive” but she was stopped when she saw one of her Repair Drones moving toward him from the other side of the now half-destroyed workshop. Actually, upon looking at it closer, she realized that it was the one Multi-access Repair Drone she had in the room, unlike the two others that were of the previous version. She was already getting a Large Water and Nether Elemental Orb ready to perform the bond – she had seen the blue and black tints on his armor before it disintegrated – but she stopped her Ape when she saw the Drone moving.

  The construct approached the fallen Dwarf that her Steelclad Ape Warrior had gingerly brought inside the workshop from where he had fallen outside. Technically, the outside was almost inside already, as half of the workshop’s roof had been torn off and sucked up into the Gravitational Devastation Sphere. Despite the new open top, it still counted as a room in her dungeon – just one now with a very large entrance. The previous entrance/exit in the Bearling lair was basically gone, having been hollowed out along with the tunnel leading there from the workshop. She was just glad that it hadn’t expanded any further, otherwise Felbar and the War Machine would’ve been crushed as they were pulled into the Gravitational Sphere outside.

  Sandra was also glad that it had shut itself off before it killed the Dwarf, though it was still up in the air if she’d be able to heal him in time. That didn’t seem to be a problem, though, because the Multi-access Repair Drone had its arms with the pads on the ends on the Dwarf’s head, pumping healing energy through his body and fixing him up. So…I’m guessing that’s what “multi-access” means? That it can heal…anybody?

  There wasn’t really anything that she could do to speed that process up, so Sandra spent some time evaluating exactly what happened because of that…unique…construct that seemed to suck everything into it. She had obviously already seen that her workshop and other entrance had been essentially destroyed along with all of her constructs that she had sent out to push back and distract the undead horde; what she didn’t know, however, was what exactly happened to everything that was pulled into the Sphere when she activated it.

  * Felbar, I’m going to try and discover what exactly happened out there; if the Dwarf wakes up soon, try to…reassure him that he’s safe. With your language barrier, I doubt you’ll be able to communicate
that well with him, but hopefully he’ll be thankful that he’s not dead. *

  “Sure, I can try to do that – but who’s going to reassure me that what I just witnessed isn’t something that I should be afraid of in the future?”

  * What are talking about? Oh…you mean the Gravitational Devastation Sphere? You don’t have to worry about that; I can only use it every 60 days and it won’t activate if it goes more than 300 feet past my entrance. So, unless I’m being attacked like I just was by those undead, I have no reason to use it. Also, based on what kind of destruction that thing did, I’m not sure I’d ever want to use it again. *

  That didn’t really seem to reassure the old Gnome, but there was really nothing that Sandra could say to convince him. She was telling the truth, though; seeing the utter devastation she caused was making her rethink her decision to use it in the first place. Bringing back her remaining Shears in her AMANS so that it was floating over her dungeon again – since there weren’t any more Specters trying to destroy them nearby – she brought a dozen down to survey the damage up close.

  It was actually quite remarkable how much of the ground had been ripped away in such a uniform way; there were places where buried boulders were pulled out of the ground and left holes in the dirt behind, but for the most part all of the packed dirt was scooped out in a roughly semi-circle shape. Anything small within approximately 500 feet of the exterior of the Sphere’s destruction was sucked up, leaving the landscape around clean-looking without any rocks, pebbles, or dirt clods anywhere. The hill where the Dwarf had been hiding was half gone itself, and Sandra was surprised that he had managed to hold on as long as he had.